Reading The Bulletins
News From Here And There
Warren Rainwater, who has been with the Joseph Avenue church in Nashville, Tennessee for four years, will move in June to work with a new congregation in Pensacola, Florida .... Ralph D. Gentry is moving from Columbus, Georgia to work with another of the congregations in Pensacola, Florida . . . . J. M. Powell has moved from Franklin, Tennessee, where he was with the Fourth Avenue church for five years, to Memphis, Tennessee to work with the Jackson Avenue church . . . . Robert Pressnell, who has done an outstanding work with the Fourth Street church in Cullman, Alabama during the last four years, will move around the first of June to work with the First Street church in Lawrenceburg, Tennessee . . . . Jack Frost has moved from Gordon, Georgia to LaFayette, Louisiana, where he will be laboring with the newly-formed congregation in that city . . . . New Book? Bro. Steve Hudgins, Box 762, Gainesville, Georgia, has recently published another book of charts with outlines to be used with each chart. It is called: Chart Sermons, Vol. II. It contains twenty charts. It is a very neat and attractive job. The chart lessons look very good. He favored me with a complimentary copy, but failed to give me the price of the book. No doubt every preacher can find at least one good lesson among those given. Personally, I have always been willing to buy any book if I could get even one good sermon from it . Order the book from him . . . . Tom O'Neal, a fine young preacher who is now in Freed-Hardeman College, desires to purchase Volume Two of the Guardian. He would buy it either in a bound book or in loose copies. If you can help him write him at the college . . . . I noticed in a recent issue of the Christian Chronicle that Abilene Christian College received a total of $38,940 during their recent series of lectures. I would say that it was a very profitable venture for them! Here is a case of "holding a meeting" or "having a lectureship" and charging (well, the fact that the gifts were voluntarily (?) given or "pressured" out of people doesn't mean they were not actually charged (!) the people for it. Is this making people pay for the gospel. Anyway, the school got some more money and that is what they are after... Joe Gray will move from Durham, N. C. to Valdosta, Georgia about the first of June to labor with the Central church there . . . The language we use sometimes really makes for wonderment. Here is an exact quotation from a bulletin of the Central church in Valdosta, Georgia: "Mr. J. L. Dukes, formerly a Free Will Baptist preacher, stated that he wanted to unite with the Church, last Sunday night. We are delighted with his willingness to take God at his word, and thus continue to discuss the Scriptures with the Godly man." I know that the ones who wrote this knew what was intended, but it leaves me in doubt. Did the Free Will Baptist preacher "unite with the Church" or not? . . . A clipping from a Memphis paper tells about an unusual case of a former preacher for the Whitehaven Church of Christ (Near Memphis) and the present preacher having a peculiar difficulty. The former preacher sought an injunction against the present preacher asking that the present preacher "be stopped from circulating erroneous reports among the church officers and members which discredit" him. The present preacher charged that the former preacher "is trying to undermine him as minister of the Church of Christ and is seeking to interfere with his 'employment' by the church." It seems that they had quite a ruckus — and I am just dying to know how it all turned out! No one has been kind enough to send me a report of the later developments! Now isn't that a mess? Boy, if I were to start getting injunctions to stop the circulation of false reports and lies about me, I would spend all my time before a judge in one place or another over the country.... Brooks Webb is now laboring with the church in Steele, Missouri. He was previously with the church in Greenwood, Mississippi . . . . Reavis Petty has moved from Poteau, Oklahoma to Columbia, Tennessee, where he will work with the Mooresville Pike congregation .... R. Ervin Driskill is leaving Lewisville, Texas. He is going to Meridian, Mississippi, to labor with a newly-formed congregation in that good city. R. A. Guinn is the evangelist with the other church in town.... H. Edward McCaskill is now living in West Columbia, Texas and working with the church there He moved from San Antonio, where he was with the South Flores congregation... Tommy Q. Vernon is now with the State Avenue church in Decatur, Alabama . . . . F. S. Harper is now with the West Nashville Heights church in Nashville, Tennessee . . . . James P. Needham is now in the midst of a good work with the Central Church in Owensboro, Kentucky. He moved there from Bellaire, Texas .... Arnold Hardin has moved form Seminole to Lancaster, Texas . . . . Glenn L. Shaver, of Hammond, Indiana, will move to Glen Park, Indiana in July to work with the church in that city .... Harold Lentz, still lives in Decatur, Alabama, but is working with the Northside church in Lexington, Alabama. He has opened a very nice bookstore in Decatur which he operates. He handles all kinds of religious books and literature. Gary D. Swaim is now laboring with the church in Hempstead, Texas .... Robert H. West, 1355 Roxbury Drive, San Bernardino, California, hopes to be released from the service in December in this year. He has been preaching for some three or four years. Recently he has been helping some of the churches near where he has been stationed. He is interested in locating with some church when released from the service about the first of the year. Contact him as above . . . . There are many fine, little church publications now being printed. They are doing much good in helping to stem the tide of digression and modernism in the church today. I suppose that I receive nearly all of these publications and am grateful for each one. Again I remind the readers of this column that I would be glad to receive the bulletin or any other publication from the church where you worship.... TRUTH Magazine is currently carrying a written debate between two anonymous writers pertaining to the extent and limit of the church's responsibility toward needy people. There are two propositions, with three exchanges on each proposition. It should really be worth reading and pertains to a question that is of interest to all. The magazine, a twenty-four page publication, is a monthly and the subscription price is $2.50 per year. The address is: Box 469, Aurora, Illinois. It is a very good paper and I urge you to subscribe . . . . A PREDICTION: I am not a prophet nor the son of a prophet, but I want to venture forth with a prediction for whatever it may be worth. Those who are abreast of current discussions relative to the issues before the church know that Brother Reuel Lemmons occupies an opposing position to that of Brother Guy N. Woods and the Gospel Advocate. Often through the Firm Foundation Brother Lemmons has taken some lusty swings at Woods' newly-espoused position; even calling it "extreme and unscriptural." A recent editorial from Lemmon's pen has brought forth a counter attack from the Advocate champion. The first of Woods' articles has appeared in reply to Lemmons and he (Woods) really "pours it on him." He accuses him of nearly everything in the book and is really bearing down on Lemmons. Lemmons will either have to line up with the Advocate-machine position or else he will be squelched — and I do not mean maybe! He is just not big enough nor powerful enough to sit up and talk back to those who have set themselves up to chart the course for the church. They will force him to line up or else he will be "blackballed" (the word they use is "quarantined"!) and "run over." My prediction: I think that Brother Lemmons will either give up or give in (he may even go to the Advocate confessional to receive their pontifical blessings and be absolved for being so rash as to cross them and practically line up with the hobby-riders!) or else he will quit the fight and take the compromise or minimize way out! I hope that I am wrong, but I do not believe that Lemmons is made of the caliber of stuff it will take to buck the Advocate power-house. He stands to lose too much by doing so — and I am not talking about losing his soul! The position that Lemmons holds and that of the Advocate are diametrically opposed one to the other and this radical difference can not really be ignored. If they should both hold their positions right on, there will have to be a parting of the way sooner or later. Will Woods' articles "convert" Lemmons and turn him into another puppet in the hands of the GA; or at least, put him in line with their creed? With great boldness and confidence Woods has taken up the fight against Lemmons' position and seems arrogantly certain that he will either get Lemmons in line or else stop him completely. With an eager and anxious eye I shall watch the future developments. Lemmons' hand has been called and exposed. What will he do?
Why They Went To Pepperdine
From The Gospel Truth, a little paper edited by Maurice A. Meredith in La Mesa, California, I take the following extracts from an article:
"The Lemon Grove church was host to Dean and Mrs. J. P. Sanders, of Pepperdine College, Los Angeles, the week-end of November 24th .... The family was honored on Saturday evening at a dinner at the church... "J. P. Sanders is one of the outstanding preachers of this generation and is one of the best educated men among us. In addition to the bachelor's degree, he has the M. S., and B. D., and the Ph. D., the latter being taken at the University of Southern California . . . . He has here to the coast with Norvel Young to give the college new direction and emphasis and to make closer ties with the church in the west. As these goals are accomplished, the college will be more useful to the church . . . ."
Here is more proof of the continued work on the part of brethren to join the church and the colleges in "holy wedlock." Here is a church being "host" to a gathering for the purpose of meeting the Dean of the college. The Dean's family was honored with a "dinner at the church." He was honored because of his position with the school! The college needed "new direction and emphasis," so Young and Sanders were chosen to give it such and also "to make closer ties with the church in the West." This is the one big trouble with the church now — it has too many "ties" with too many of man's institutions and ideas.
How can the church and the schools be kept separate as long as there are those among us who are determined to bring them closer together. Does the church depend upon these institutions?
Read It And Weep
In the Nashville Banner, March 4, the religious editor reported on a speech by "Dr. John S. Cayce, elder in West End church, urging Church of Christ men in Nashville area to take greater interest in Boy Scouting .... Speaking at First Monday luncheon at Maxwell House, he pointed out that of year's total of 132 Eagle Scouts, 33 per cent are members or attend Churches of Christ, yet only three troops in Nashville area are sponsored by Church of Christ congregations — West End, David Lipscomb College, and Franklin (Fourth Avenue in Franklin, Tennessee) . . . . Everything we do at West End is a part of our missionary program . . . ."
Here is an elder urging churches of Christ to take a greater interest in Scouting and advocating that churches sponsor troops. The West End church, where Dr. Cayce is an elder, sponsors a Boy Scout troop. Cayce tells us that "everything we do is a part of our missionary program." Hence, he considers sponsoring a Scout troop as a part of the "mission of the church." What next? Is it surprising to find someone advocating such in view of all else that has been saddled off on the church as a part of her mission? I certainly have no objection to the work of the Boy Scouts of America as far as their organization and work go, but it certainly is not any part of the mission or work of the Lord's church to sponsor and otherwise underwrite such activity.
World Evangelism
I recently had opportunity to examine statistics on foreign preaching being done by churches of Christ, which had been prepared by Bro. Homer Hailey's class on "World Evangelism." Careful consideration of how little we are yet doing to carry the Gospel to every creature should move the heart of every Christian to greater liberality and zeal.
These statistics set the population of the world (excluding the United States) at 2,040,000,000; this is approximately 93% of the world's population, scattered throughout 95% of the worlds land area. Churches of Christ have 87 preachers working outside the U. S., or 1 preacher for every 24,878,048 people!
In the United States our growth has been most encouraging. Over 100,000 conversions are estimated for 1956-57, and churches of Christ have moved from 16th to 8th position in size of membership among U. S. religious groups in the last 10 years. Only 5 groups have more congregations in the U. S. today; there are some 1,600,000 members of churches of Christ by careful estimate. One reason for our growth in the United States is obvious: there are 15,000 Gospel preachers at work in this country, or 1 preacher for every 10,666 persons in the U. S.
Our need is not less preaching here but more preaching throughout the world. We have 991/2% of Gospel preaching being done among 7% of the world's population, or in 5% of the world's total land area. According to the ratio of preachers to population outside the U. S. (1 to 24,878,048), we would only have 7 Gospel preachers in the U. S. today!
These facts add a note of happiness to our knowledge that we are helping to support Bro. Robert Nichols in Japan. But it also should add a blast of urgency to our determination to support more and more Gospel preaching in coming years. Would you like to live in a land with 1 Gospel preacher for every 25 million people? What will the Lord say to us when the larger portion of those teeming millions reply in the final Judgment — "We did not hear...."? — Harold Hazelip, Louisville, Ky.